


5 Times Someone in the Family Saved Fredo and One Time He Saved Himself

by SegaBarrett



Category: The Godfather (1972 1974 1990)
Genre: 5 Times, All Over Canon, Bullying, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Fredo in Vegas, Gen, Pneumonia, Protective Siblings, Threats of Violence, Yuletide Treat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-24
Updated: 2020-12-24
Packaged: 2021-03-11 05:35:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,863
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28290024
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SegaBarrett/pseuds/SegaBarrett
Summary: Fredo can be a little different from his siblings.
Comments: 13
Kudos: 29
Collections: Yuletide 2020





	5 Times Someone in the Family Saved Fredo and One Time He Saved Himself

**Author's Note:**

  * For [nothfan](https://archiveofourown.org/users/nothfan/gifts).



> Disclaimer: I don't own the Godfather and I make no money from this.

**1 - Connie**

The longer Connie sits there, the more annoyed she feels.

Deanna Dunn has spent the last ten minutes elbowing, poking, tapping, and sneering at Fredo. They’re all out at dinner and she’s drawn the short straw of being across the table from them, while Michael and Kay both seem oblivious.

Connie finds herself remembering the voice of Lucy Mancini, telling her, “They’re saying Sonny beat up your husband in the street.”

Lucy had sounded impressed, and Connie had been mortified.

And, if she admitted it, a little bit impressed too.

Now, she truly sees the appeal, as Deanna continues to treat Fredo as if he’s a potted plant. 

She considers saying something, rolls the words over in her head, remembers Sonny’s sharp, “Don’t you ever tell her to shut up” and wonders if the words from her could ever carry the same weight. Worse, it might highlight Fredo’s own reluctance to speak up, in front of everyone, and with Michael so high and mighty these days....

And so Connie tries for a different tact. 

“Deanna,” she says with syrup in her voice. “I was going to go walk over to the restroom. Come with me?”

Deanna tilts back her wine glass once more before giggling and standing up, giving Fredo not so much as a “see you soon.”

When they get to the bathroom, Connie waits for Deanna to preen in front of the mirror, and she walks up right beside her, close enough to breathe on her neck.

“My brother’s not your plaything,” Connie whispers. She mimes a finger across Deanna’s neck, then smiles and pats her on the shoulder. “I think his hair is great, don’t you?”

When they get back to the table, Deanna sits back beside Fredo, scoops up some salad, and says, “Have you all seen Fredo’s haircut? Isn’t it great?”

Connie sits back and smiles.

****

**2 - Michael**

Sometimes Fredo has to remind Michael that he’s a year younger than him. Sometimes Fredo even needs to remind himself.

It was some time in high school that Michael sprouted up into the “beauty” (Fredo couldn’t really see it) that was the envy of everyone, while Fredo had just grown gawky and awkward like a tree branch that broke somewhere along the way and then insisted on growing out wrong.

Fredo is a senior, of all things, the day that some much taller, bulkier seniors from the football team decide to crowd him as he’s leaving class and roust him for “a dollar”.

Fredo knows it’s less about the dollar and more about making one of the Corleone sons look like a fool in front of everyone, and it’s not like they would have tried this with Sonny. But Sonny’s been at home for years now and Fredo’s the oldest still in school and he should be looking out for Michael. At least he doesn’t have to try and flex for Connie, considering she’s still in the 8th grade and in a girls’ school besides. 

“C’mon, give us a dollar, Freddie,” one of the big-headed jocks demands, shoving him into the wall, making Fredo drop the textbooks in his arms. He could invoke his father’s name, of course, but he won’t. Running to the Don about this would be… Fredo can’t describe, even to himself, what that would mean.

He’s mulling over how much he’s going to have to stand there and take when Michael comes down the hall like a bolt from the blue and kicks the ringleader in the shins, then turns to Fredo like it’s nothing.

“I was looking for you. Let’s get home,” he says in that soft tone of his, and Fredo gathers up his books and follows him.

***

**3 - Sonny**

Fredo is sure that at any second, Sonny is going to yell at him if he doesn't stop crying. But he still can’t stop. Ever since Vito was shot, Fredo has found himself on the edge of tears continually, and at best he can only bring it down to sniffles.

He listens in a listless stupor as Sonny makes calls and inquiries, and when Sonny comes back he tries to push his shoulders back and look tough and stoic.

He tries to look like Michael would. 

Sonny looks at him and pulls up a chair, leaning in close as Fredo looks away. Sonny was always able to read him like he was a newspaper. (But he was always able to read Sonny, too.)

“Fredo,” Sonny says. His voice is full of affection, but with none of the teasing that usually accompanies it. He reached out and touches Fredo’s cheek, cups his chin and moves his face forward, then wraps his arms around his younger brother and holds him tight. “Fredo, you did just fine. It’s not your fault.” 

Fredo bursts into tears against Sonny’s chest. And Sonny lets him.

****

**4 - Tom**

The day that Tom Hagan meets Fredo is the same day that he meets everyone else in his new family. He meets Sonny first, of course, and then it’s _pow – pow – pow_ as Sonny introduces him in rapid-fire motions to everyone else.

He’s not sure how the conversation went exactly, but Sonny’s father, who immediately allows him to call him “Pop” like the rest, seems to have somehow been prepared for his arrival, and Sonny’s mother welcomes him with open arms just the same.

The other kids seem a little more suspicious at first. Fredo, six, seems to pout every time Tom gets some attention, and little five-year-old Michael is too quiet for Tom to read. Tiny toddler Connie seems to be amenable, other than attempting to nibble on Tom’s ear whenever he picks her up.

Tom and Sonny spend almost all of their time together, but there comes a day when Sonny is off somewhere – Tom can’t recall later if the separation is a few hours at a dentist appointment or a few days with a case of measles – and Tom approaches Fredo.

“Hi,” he says, and Fredo looks up at him sullenly. Tom swallows and extends his hand. “You wanna go sledding?”

Fredo cocks his head to the side.

“Yeah. Okay.”

And up the hill they go.

***

**5 - Vito**

Of all his children, Vito worries about Fredo the most. It seems as if Sonny can stumble through life bruised but never seriously hurt, and Michael… well, he has plans for Michael.  
Tom has a head on his shoulders that will keep him out of trouble and Connie, well she’s a born survivor too, from her first breath.

But then there’s Fredo. When Vito thinks of him, he doesn’t always picture the man standing before him or the teenager who he’d catch playing “Puttin’ on the Ritz” on the record player and nodding his head along or even the child who would try to keep up with Sonny but end up tripping over his own feet and getting left behind. 

He pictures Fredo as an infant, shaking with pneumonia as Vito and Carmela hold him close, rocking him.

Vito’s mind spins, while he is out, with the possibility that he might come home to Fredo not being there at all, that the illness might be too much for his tiny body, and that tragedy would have won in his family all over again. 

And he promises anything for another day with him, and another, and another, and another.

Fredo is a good boy, after all, even if he’s not quite like the others. 

****

**+1 - Fredo**

Fredo’s standing at the blackjack table when the shots ring out, the same way that they did the fateful night that Vito was shot. _Pop – pop – pop – pop – pop_ , quick and powerful, like a jackhammer.

His first instinct is to duck, and when he does, he sees that there’s a woman with long, dark hair crouched against a slot machine, one of the cocktail waitresses who was bringing drinks to all the high rollers. 

Right past her, caddy-corner to the slot machine, is the door to Moe Greene’s office. In Moe’s office, Fredo knows, there are helpful things such as phones, weapons and, if things went a particularly kind of bad way, a huge fire extinguisher.

_Pop – pop – pop – pop!_

The gun goes off again and Fredo lets out an unbecoming squeak, bizarrely considering getting up and reminding whoever is shooting at him that the Molinaris have assured his safety and that, besides, they don’t want to get on the bad side of a man such as Moe Greene. 

He’s not really sure they would listen, and anyway Moe is away on business in Los Angeles and Fredo has been nominally in charge of things. 

Which means that if this turns into a complete mess, he is going to be the one who’s going to have to look at Michael’s disappointed face and see his father shake his head as soon as they all hear about it. 

_Pop – pop – pop – pop!_

Fredo hasn’t heard the sounds of anybody actually getting hurt, just the sound of footsteps moving, and he wonders if it’s him they’re coming for or if this is about something else entirely.

Fredo gets on his knees and starts to scamper as much as he can over to the waitress. She’s close enough to open Moe’s door if he can just convince her to do so.

“Hey,” he says to her. In his brain, he scrambles to find her name. “Emerald, right?”

She nods, eyes wide.

“I’m, uh, Freddie. Fredo. Freddie… Uh, either one. Listen. It seems like we have kind of a crisis here. So… um, if you could open the door to Moe’s office, that would be real swell.”

Emerald blinks at him and reaches towards the door slightly with her hand, before yelping and bringing it back after another gunshot goes off. She looks back at Fredo.

“Listen… I’m, uh, not really known as the bravest in my family. Or the smartest. Or the toughest. We might have two of each for some of those, even. But… you seem pretty brave, Emerald. How’d you get to Vegas anyway?”

She shakes a little bit but looks at him and explains, “I just got on a bus and went. I came from Kansas City. Kansas, not Missouri.”

“Well, that must’ve been scary huh?” Fredo says. “I was scared when I came over here from New York. I had to leave behind everything I ever knew, my whole family, and you did too. But… I know you can get that door open. Because you already showed you’re brave as hell.” 

He reaches in his pocket and tosses her a ring of keys. She looks at him one more time and then bolts up to the door, fumbling with the key but opening the door in a few seconds flat.

As soon as she does, Fredo bolts in right after her and grabs the fire extinguisher, while Emerald opts for the Uzi that is, for reasons only Moe Greene could explain, lying across Moe’s desk.

“Time to clear out some bad guys?” Emerald asks. 

“Let’s just threaten ‘em first,” Fredo replies, and smiles.

This time he's going to do it his own way.

**Fin**


End file.
